Play In Rear Struts

[starfire27]

Can anyone tell me how much play you should have between the rear top mount and the chassis?

Just put new springs on my car and changed the rear top mounts at the same time and was a little surprised at how much play they had in them.

Thanks

 

[madhillbilly17]

changed mine not long ago i didnt find i had any play,have you made sure its line up with the tab in the slot?

 

[starfire27]

Yea lines up with the tab and the bolt is as tight as it goes. If you say you have no play my money is on the metal plat in the EBay (sh**e) top mounts being too high.

 

[YOG]

You'll normally get around 5-10mm, when the MOT guy levers the suspension up.

 

[ant0]

Yea lines up with the tab and the bolt is as tight as it goes. If you say you have no play my money is on the metal plat in the EBay (sh**e) top mounts being too high.

I can confirm this - my new top mounts from ebay did indeed have the plate at a different height to standard which meant a bigger "gap" was created... but sorted that by trimming the tophats to then retain the same gap as original. OK as long as you replace them in pairs - don't mix them.

 

[starfire27]

Cheers!

I got some new mounts from my local motor factors made by Excel and they fit just fine, same price I paid for the ebay sh**e too :grin:

 

[boospuma]

http://www.mojalbum.com/boospuma/puma/foto/18390072" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

biuld my into the car piece by piece ...now it's full of strut :twisted:

 

[zedder]

I bought a pair of Sachs Advantage shocks and DIY installation went otherwise fine, but there is at least 6 mm play between top mount plate and the chassis. Is this normal? I didn´t notice how much play there was with original Ford parts or was there any.

It is strange how it is possible to get a car through finnish MOT multiple times with a with totally dead shock absorber. When i pushed the rod in, it never came back. Other side´s shock was still in acceptable condition. I just wonder how many years i have driven a Puma with only one working rear shock absorber...

Anyway, now my Puma is much better to drive.

 

[starfire27]

I just put standard ford top mounts back on my car and have hardly any play, maybe 3mm. If your using standard ford top mounts I cant see what the issue could be.

 

[zedder]

Is it possible that rubber top mounts have flattened so much that it creates this kind of gap? There is a visible gap on front shock absorbers also, so I have no idea what is "normal" situation.

Would it be really stupid to get a pair of used top mount plates and cut the tube part little shorter? Then there would be smaller gap between chassis and plate´s rubber surround. This would be an easy (temporary?) fix.

There is no clonking sounds, but It can´t be a good thing that rear suspension is not attached properly to chassis when driving on roads which are in bad condition.

 

[ant0]

Is it possible that rubber top mounts have flattened so much that it creates this kind of gap? There is a visible gap on front shock absorbers also, so I have no idea what is "normal" situation

Don't worry, having a gap is the normal situation.
But a very excessive gap isn't and can be caused by size diffs in aftermarket top mounts - I trimmed my front top-hats a bit for that reason and retained the same 4mm (ish) gap.

 

[zedder]

Could someone explain for me what this "line up with the tab in the slot" means? When I replaced rear shocks I read Ford´s own instructions and I don´t think there was anything about this kind of thing. Is there a possibility that something is not fitted correctly and it causes too wide gap? Before I cut those top hat pipes shorter I would like to be sure I´m not doing it just because something else is not how it supposed to be.

 

[ScubaSteve]

there is a tab on the top mounts that you need to make sure slots into the slot in the top of the turret

 

[zedder]

there is a tab on the top mounts that you need to make sure slots into the slot in the top of the turret

I didn´t notice that tab before, but now after I looked few pics of those top mounts on ebay I think I know what this means. Is this tab only to prevent shock absorber rod turning when trying to tighten the nut inside car?

If there is a slot for this tab and it is not aligned at this moment, does it mean that there will be even wider gap after it´s aligned because top mount sinks deeper in the turret...?

 

[ScubaSteve]

the tabs can be seen on this pic

on the outer side of them

they wont stop the shock spinning, not entireley sure why the rears have them and not the fronts